Judging by his picture in today’s Guardian, Alan Rusbridger has invested in a new wig which plumbs new depths of unconvincingness, even by Rusbridger standards. He is moving past Donald Trump territory in the direction of Danny La Rue.
The great mortification of my own life is that Nadira insists upon dyeing my hair – there are evident cultural differences over the acceptability of the practice, to the extent that Nadir’s distress at a white-haired partner even exceeds my own shame and embarassment over the dyeing.
But what, you ask, does my or Rusbridger’s hair dishonesty have to do with our work or opinions? Nothing, really. But the Guardian seems to prize such pointless character assassination, like this from Polydor Airhead on Julian Assange:
But when Assange appears, he seems more like an in-patient than an interviewee, his opening words slow and hesitant, the voice so cracked as to be barely audible. If you have ever visited someone convalescing after a breakdown, his demeanour would be instantly recognisable. Admirers cast him as the new Jason Bourne, but in these first few minutes I worry he may be heading more towards Miss Havisham.
Which is an untrue description to the point of being an absolute lie. I have spent a lot more time, including insude the Ecuadorean Embassy, with Julian than Ms Airhead, and I can assure you that the most striking thing about Julian is he is very normal. Intelligent and interesting, but normal. These attempts to dehumanise him by portraying him as a weirdo are deeply sinister. It is also completely untrue that he does not meet many people in the Embassy. I am willing to bet he sees more visitors than Ms Airhead. And her speculation on who he is sleeping with is disgusting.
Rusbridger – a man more disgusting than his wig.
“You – and Heretic – are conveniently ignoring my 9 Dec 3.19pm post setting out how a top Swedish (and EU) politician, who called on 3rd December 2012 for Assange to “just go and answer the charges in Sweden”, has herself been working closely with the US Justice Department to facilitate Assange’s transfer to the US.”
You’re conveniently ignoring the question of why he has to go to Sweden to be extradited to the US.
“If any poor sod (citizen that is) from Canada, US or UK needs their embassy in Tel Aviv unless they are Jewish, they can forget it.”
How in your twisted little mind do you work that out?
Arbed, you and others fail to appreicate that the USA, the UK, and other Western states want to stop leaks from leakers, like what Bradley Manning, Gareth Williams, and Gudrun Loftus were involved in, and Julian Assange and Wikileaks are taking advantage of.
And these states, especially Washington, are quite willing to scare others from doing so by acting like they are willing to do anything go stop it – like acting as if they will use these sexual allegations against Assange as a ruse to get their hands on him for espionage.
Actually, they have no case against the Australian for espionage as the American legislation does not apply to him, and what he did is not spying – it’s only disclosing what it had gained from alleged spies who could also be working for foreign states, or could inform them of what they have learned.
The whole problem was well illustrated when DCI Leon Panetta had a hit squad come here to Sweden to kill me because he thought that I was spying for some foreign state because of my articles about space weapons, and former KGB agents, especially ANITA apparently aka Angela Merkel.
While John Young infomed me of the new threat after Säpo had chased the hit squad out of the country in February 2009, the American authorites then were satisfied with just entrapping me as ‘Jihad Jane’s whitey assassin of loony Swedish cartoonist Lars Wilks.
Since she is still trying to entrap someone, it will be interesting to see what happens when I go to the States this weekend.
I am not worried about being arrested as anyone’s spy – just concerned about being set up for something nasty.
Assange would face just the same problem if he ever goes there too, either by choice or any alleged legal obligation.
Washington will fit a person it wants to get with the appropriate remedy.
Nevermind What slush from the EDP. It was like one of their advertorials.
Anyway hope the pair of parasites lives happily ever after and that she settles down to creating lots of little McFadzean’s.
Here he is.
http://www.catalyst.co.uk/127-Sandyappt.html
After her Treasury fiasco, she was sent to the salt mines in the Cabinet Office.
How embarrassing that she proposed! Hard to tell which is which here. Miaow!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2245827/Minister-Chloe-Smith-proposes-boyfriend-Sandy-McFadzean-whirlwind-4-month-romance.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
Kempe – easy does it please. Arbed (and a few others on the Anna Ardin thread) know the Assange in substantial detail, so they’re worth listening to with civility even if you disagree on something. I’ve let the al-Hilli threads turn into a bun-fight (they are probably too big to moderate) but elsewhere I err slightly more towards keeping discussion good-natured.
Thanks.
Giles
Arsalan
No, No, No not Fawkes. Everyone to wear an Alan Rusbridger mask and wig!
Why did the sainted Keith Vaz, so oleaginous and puffed up, barge into the lives of Jacintha Saldanha’s grieving family in Bristol? He is not a Bristol MP. The family are Mangalorean Catholics. Perhaps he is one too. He is even meeting Glenarthur, the chair of the hospital’s trust, this afternoon. He criticized the hospital roundly for not visiting the family and only sending a letter.
He was speaking on the World at One today.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01p6ztb 11mins 30 secs in
‘Labour MP Keith Vaz, who has visited Mrs Saldanha’s husband Benedict Barboza and family at their home in Bristol, said: “They will love her and cherish her and take her to India for burial.”
He said Mrs Saldanha’s family were Mangalorean Catholics – originating from the city of Mangalore in India – and he said they were a “small, strong family”.’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20662352
Glenarthur has had and has now many irons in the fire.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Arthur,_4th_Baron_Glenarthur
@ Jon (12h42 today) – your point about the US, Canadian and UK ambassadors to Israel all being Jewish :
while I think you exaggerate when you say God help anyone not Jewish themself going to noe of these three for help if in trouble, I do think that it’s a serious mistake to send a Jew as amabassador to Israel (or, for that matter, a Muslim to a Muslim country or a Buddhist to Thailand – not that this has actually arisen yet as far as I know). The argument for would, I suppose, be the creation of empathy and that it would be easier to get into the mindset of the host country, but the disadvantages – first and foremost, the risk of the ambassador going native – by far outweigh any possible positives. After all, one of the main reasons why these three countries normally rotate ambassadors every 4 to 5 years is precisely to avoid the going native phenomenon.
Keith Vaz is probably trying to raise his profile after lying relatively low for a while following his little ….let us say, troubles. And he wants to be on the side of the good guys. Obvious, surely?
Since someone is bound to try and pick a little hole in my comment, I should just add – although it’s probably obvious – that whereas a standard ambassador risks going native after a few years in post, a Jewish ambassador would have gone native before he even started. Hence better not.
Seriously what of wearing an Alan Rusbridger mask with ‘real’ hair? one would not need to ask would one?
We have not come that far, have we?
what a challenge, or is there one already?
Only a few days to go now before the umpteenth end of the world glass raising event, lets see which idiots will comply with it on the day.
Habbabkuk,
I think Craig said previously that British policy was explicitly not to send a Jew to Israel or a Catholic to the Holy See etc. but Blair scrapped that policy.
Habbabkuk. Did you mean this? I missed it. Amazing how these MPs are like ducks shaking the water off their backs. Chutzpah in another culture.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/9577876/Keith-Vaz-Secret-police-probe-into-Labour-MPs-500000.html
@ Mary : I’d love to boast and say yes it was that, but I must be honest and admit that I was thinking rather of his parliamentary expenses….Your excerpt was an interesting read and I always thought there was something not quite kosher about the man. Why should that be, I wonder? Probably ‘cos I saw him in action a few times.
@ Anon : ah, was that the pre-Blair policy then? If so, a very sensible one. Trust Blair to fuck that up as well. Reminds me a bit of what Kingley Amis reported as Bob Conquest’s first law, which went something like this : “every organisation appears to be headed by secret agents of its worst enemy”.
Shame on the Guardian.
What a nasty snidey and cutting piece. No grace at all and no compassion for Bradley Manning now going through a hell created by Obomber and Killary.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2012/dec/10/bradley-manning-guardian-person-of-the-year-2012?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
Yes Mary, and the Guardian is typically reverse-misogynist on the issue too:
“What that kid did really focussed the world on the evil that these men can do.”
I don’t think the Guardian ever once mentioned that it was the girl’s father who championed her right to an education. Heaven forbid that “men” ever be presented in a less evil light.
Dave, are you suggesting that Alan Rusbridger is really a woman?
The girl is like many thousands of innocent children caught up in America’s imperialist wars. Like the children in the van blown up by an American helicopter gunship while their unarmed father was trying to take an innocent injured Iraqi to hospital. A war crime, undoubtedly and a war crime the world would never known about if an American Private called Bradley Manning had not leaked video of the event to Wikileaks.
Bradley Manning is in prison for the crime of reporting a crime, he deserves our support.
A bit O/T, but : does anyone have the gen on Colonel Richard Kemp? For instance, he keeps being described as “..former commander of British forces in Af….stan..”.Should that read “..a former commander..”, since I don’t understand how a mere colonel could be in command of all British forces there.
And how does he earn his living now?
I think you are daft Habbabkuk. Your irrelevant invective was a tiny bit more interesting.
—
The Guardians job on Manning was staggering! Purely slurring Manning as undeserving and Wikileaks as cheats robbing Malala of recognition by tweeting the poll. They had better make good with a proper person of the year article or be damned!
Wikileaks did a series of tweets on that Guardian ‘poll’ (read from the bottom up):
the idiocy of the people and the evil enemy @WikiLeaks. Just like UK and often US foreign policy the world over.
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4h WikiLeaks WikiLeaks @wikileaks
..continue to pump up the institutional “meant to win” setup candidate, as an type of apology to the establishment, then blame the loss on…
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4h WikiLeaks WikiLeaks @wikileaks
10. Finally after the whole world is printing who won, issue a sulking statement marginalising the vote, voters, the winner and…
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4h WikiLeaks WikiLeaks @wikileaks
9, When democracy breaks out and Manning wins the vote by a landslide 70% at first simply pretend nothing happened at all. Say nothing.
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5h WikiLeaks WikiLeaks @wikileaks
8. Due to provinciality at the Guardian it’s impossible for the Guardian to imagine any other Candidate would win in their UK bubbleverse
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5h WikiLeaks WikiLeaks @wikileaks
7. Give the preferred candidate a) the only picture b) prime position c) additional stories manipulate the vote.
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5h WikiLeaks WikiLeaks @wikileaks
6. A reader nominated Manning.. Accept him onto the list because they think he has no chance. Squeeze the list to a mere 6 contenstants.
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5h WikiLeaks WikiLeaks @wikileaks
4. Create the Guardian candidate list and front load it with the intended winner (Malala)
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5h WikiLeaks WikiLeaks @wikileaks
3. This week, that’s Malala, a 14 year old girl reportedly shot in the head by the Taliban who has been exploited by the pro-war lobby
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5h WikiLeaks WikiLeaks @wikileaks
2. Front load the Guardian “Person of the Year” list with the target that will let the Guardian rip on and on about the evil Taliban.
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5h WikiLeaks WikiLeaks @wikileaks
1. Decide to push pro-war Afghan war line by exploiting wounded girls similar to this CIA report released by WL http://wikileaks.org/wiki/CIA_report_into_shoring_up_Afghan_war_support_in_Western_Europe,_11_Mar_2010 …
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5h WikiLeaks WikiLeaks @wikileaks
The Guardian’s recent Person of the Year fiasco is illustrative of how the UK establishment and modern media work. Points follow (1-10).
Feeling better after that, Thatcrab?
There is no doubt that the girl is a victim. She is a victim of a popular NATO-countries press that paints her as a victim of a country that should be smashed and colonized.
This is the usual strategy of using women’s issues to justify neoimperialist violence.
Incidentally, it seems that we are now moving on from exploiting women’s issues to exploiting gays in this respect.
Short exchange between Medialens editors and Mehdi Hassan. Latter ex New Statesman and now Huffington Post where he is grandly titled Political Director!
Brief exchange with Mehdi Hasan on Decca Aitkenhead
Posted by The Editors on December 11, 2012, 3:30 pm
MH: Great Decca Aitkenhead interview with Sayeeda Warsi in the Grauniad
ML: What did you think of Aitkenhead’s interview with Assange?
MH: Havent read it. And cant be bothered to get into an Assange row with you guys today.
ML: Thanks for your reply.
“Alan Rusbridger”
http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2012/12/11/leveson-report-editors-move-to-muzzle-third-party-complaints-from-disabled-people-and-minorities/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BlackTriangleCampaign+%28Black+Triangle+Campaign%29
I wondered why Tim Yeo was on the media this morning backing fracking.
From Guido Fawkes
Why Is Tim Yeo Backing Fracking?
If Tim Yeo is doing the rounds in television studios professing his support for an idea, it’s usually not unfair to assume there must be a vested interest in there somewhere. This morning the conflicted chairman of the Energy and Climate Change select committee decided he was backing fracking, so Guido crowd-sourced his possible financial interests. The results were hardly shocking.
From his register of interests
Miscellaneous
http://orderorder.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/yeof.jpg?w=480&h=39
ITI Energy supplies equipment for a variety of methods of producing energy from gases. Add that to his other interests in energy investment, energy efficient vehicles and fuel cell technology, and you get the picture. Whiffy once again…
~~~~
Are not some MPs revolting for their greed and self interest?
Speaking of polls that don’t go the way their instigators expect, the London Bookfair team are asking for nominations for people of outstanding achievement in international publishing.
http://www.londonbookfair.co.uk/en/Forms1/Lifetime-Achievement-Award-Nomination/
(flippin’ heck Captcha, I needed a calculator for that one!)
A piechart examining the controversial state of disagreement among Climate Change experts.
The charts colour scheme might strike some as perjorative but as likely it was choosen to maximise the visibility of the datas distribution.
sry – proper link
http://www.desmogblog.com/print/6662
My god!!! I’ve just been watching BBC Newsnight tonight about Syria….. Is there any end to the shite that these so called jounalists talk. I think his name is Gavin Estler …. They are either lying psychopaths, or they are too stupid to be doing the job….
Jim McDonald. It was a shocking piece of propaganda to hasten a full scale war or ‘intervention’ as they like to call it.
I left a comment last night on the later post.
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2012/12/swing-to-mahama-across-nation/#comment-385405
The link to the Newsnight segment is http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01pdy79/Newsnight_11_12_2012/ 21.40 in
The name of the presenter is Gavin Esler, well known here. He treated Craig disgracefully before. A well known propagandist for the gangsters-in-charge as I affectionately call our rulers.
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2012/08/naming-anna-ardin-on-newsnight/